BAKE OFF OF THE WEEK

jam session

This year hasn't been a great one for stone fruit... too much water and not enough sun has left the trees shooting out branches and leaves rather than fruit and the fruit on offer hasn't had enough sun to get it ripe quickly or uniformly enough to beat the feasting beaks of birds and bats (well bats don't have beaks I know but you get the drift) Nonetheless I have been determined to make something of the harvest before it all fell of the tree bug riddled and bird pecked.

Thankfully, I found a gap on Monday between holiday sickness abating and work starting with the added benefit of grandparent babysitting of Master Maxwell to get to work and get some jam made.

With the house blissfully empty save for the sounds of bubbling apricots and my dodgy collection of 60's soul, 70's disco, 80's metal, 90's grunge and noughties folk and nuevo new wave I enjoyed myself  thoroughly, and hopefully managed to recapture some of the magic of last season's jam session.

I say hopefully because it would appear that last year I set the bar rather high and had myself some jam addicts jonesing for another jar after the first one had been consumed in record time... Oh and Pen, I hope you won't mind my recycling your jam jars as long as you get at least one jar of mine back in return :)

Given that there was going to be some waiting around time while the jam bubbled into the correct consistency I decided to finally use the Gingerbread and Shortbread dough that had been sitting in the fridge since Christmas eve and bake myself (and my loved ones) some cookies.

While the gingerbread did crack a little on top it was deliciously chewy and spicy. Max has subsequently developed a perhaps unhealthy crush on them as apparently "mummy's biscuits are quite tasty" and "very nice for my breakfast"  hmmmm.

I love making the cranberry and pistachio shortbread, not just because the end result is so damn tasty, but because the mix is really, really pretty, surely incentive enough to make and extra batch?

Yum. BECK